


Corset

by deliriumbubbles



Category: Glee
Genre: M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-02-05
Updated: 2016-02-05
Packaged: 2018-05-18 08:16:01
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,610
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5911930
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/deliriumbubbles/pseuds/deliriumbubbles
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Kurt’s star is rising, and he is now on the road with his first big concert tour. Backstage between sets, he has trouble getting out of his outfit.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Corset

The flashing lights and the roar of the crowd were still in Kurt’s ears as he hurried through the crew backstage to his dressers. There was a section cordoned off for his privacy, but it was really little more than a screen. The backup dancers all had to change in front of one another, which amounted to a a whirlwind of shimmering clothes and bare flesh. Kurt’s manager would have a fit over the conditions; she always wanted Kurt to have his own space. Unfortunately, not all venues were as flexible as need be.

Kurt lifted his arms over his head while Dana stripped off the backless studded leather bolero jacket. He could see himself in the mirror; a pale vision of porcelain and black eyeliner. Even now, the thought that people came-- thousands of people!-- to hear him sing, watch him dance every night, dazed him. There was always part of him that wondered how this was his life now. 

But it was.

“Oh... Oh, dammit,” Dana muttered as she enmeshed her fingers in the lacing on the back of Kurt’s corset.

“What? What is it?”

  
“The laces have gotten tangled again. God, who designed this thing.”

“The second act corset is much better, yeah.” Kurt half-turned to look at her, and she was shaking her head.

“Just... hold still.”

Kurt tried not to move. They didn’t have too much time to get him undressed, and then redressed... He closed his eyes and ran through the next number in his mind.

Being an international superstar meant he could have all the bells and whistles he wanted on stage. And he often did, although he had fewer these days than the performances he did as the lone surviving member of Pamela Lansbury/One Three Hill fulfilling their final booked obligations. It helped that now his record had gone national, the record company had backup singers and dancers for him.

“I’ll be right back.” Dana rose and stuck a pen behind her ear before scurrying off.

Kurt whipped around and felt his heart leap into his throat. Half-dressed, and they only had a few minutes... What should he do? He started on the buttons on his pants, but they were too tight. He needed help.

“Hey!” a man said breathlessly behind him. “I’ve got some...”

The man’s voice trailed off, and he came no closer. Kurt looked up. Blinked. Opened his mouth slightly in surprise.

“I...”

“I didn’t realize you were the one who needed them,” he said.

It was Adam Crawford. Broad-shouldered and gorgeous as ever, but with his hair a bit shorter than Kurt remembered. It had been a long time, though. Kurt hadn’t really seen Adam since his days in NYADA, before Adam had graduated. They’d lost touch, even after the sting of almost-not-quite failed dating had subsided and they’d decided to try to be friends. It hadn’t worked. Blaine had always gotten so jealous of Kurt’s friends. Elliott had been bad enough. Adam would have been impossible.

Now he was standing there in the slim-fitting outfit of the backup singers for the next number, red shirt with suspenders and pinstriped pants, and he was looking at Kurt with a funny expression.

“Where’s Dana?” Kurt blurted out. “I have to get back onstage.” 

“She’s getting one of the costumers to help her with your next outfit. I didn’t think- I reckon when she told one of us to get the scissors she figured we knew what to do...” Adam shrugged and held the scissors up.

Kurt shook his head. “Well, no time to be modest, I guess. Can you help me out of this thing?”

Adam smiled and came over. “Where should I cut it?”

“Try the strings, first? Or...” Kurt looked down his side. “If you cut along this seam, it might work better. Those strings are leather. They’ll be hard to cut through.”

“It’s so tight, though...” Adam frowned slightly. He pulled on the strings and tried to work through one.

“See?”

“I believe you, but I’m afraid I’ll hurt you with these things.”

“I’m used to a little pain with my corsets.”

“Hm.”  

Adam sounded like he was amused, but Kurt wasn’t sure. He exhaled deeply, hoping to give Adam the space he needed to get him out of this outfit. Adam cut one string... then another... the corset felt slightly less confining, but Kurt doubted he could get out of it this way.

Adam put the scissors down. “Okay, hold on.”

He tugged at the strings again, the slipped a few fingers under the corset. Kurt jumped at the touch, and looked at Adam there, brow furrowed with his work. 

“Getting a little better. Maybe a few more, and then we can free you, hm?” Adam sighed and went to work on the strings again. He repeated the pulling, the tugging, and then the fingers working between the pinching corset and Kurt’s flushed skin.

“Thanks for doing this,” Kurt muttered.

“You’re the boss, darling.” Adam took a deep breath. “Okay, I’m going to go at the side. Keep very, very still. Promise?”

“I will.”

Kurt closed his eyes as Adam started to cut. The metal of the scissors was cool against his skin, and the two of them were so silent that he could hear Adam breathing, along with the thick snipping of the scissors. Then, as the corset started to come apart, Kurt felt himself expanding, his chest freed, a sudden release.  Finally, it fell off onto the floor, and Kurt turned with gratitude in his eyes toward Adam.

“Oh, bless you!”

“How do you perform in that?” Adam looked over Kurt’s body. “I can see the marks on your... Sorry. It’s not my place.”

“It’s okay.” 

Adam set down the scissors.

“I didn’t know you were working with us,” Kurt said gently.

“I’m a replacement. Someone dropped out, and the casting director Clara knew my name, so I got a call for a last minute audition.”

Kurt considered that for a moment. Adam would be dancing and singing behind him tonight. Maybe he already had, and Kurt had been too dizzy with the performance to notice. “So you’re going to be touring with us?”

“I am!” Adam beamed. “It’ll be the most I’ve seen of the states. You know I love to travel.”

“It makes me nervous,” Kurt admitted. “The traveling. I like to be where I’m supposed to be already.”

“I know.”

Kurt swallowed. Dana reappeared with the costume designer Claudia, the two of the chatting incessantly about the upcoming outfits. They were over time for the break, and Kurt still wasn’t out of his outfit.

“Crawford, could you get Kurt out of his pants?” Claudia asked.

Kurt was already boiling from the heat of the performance and the temperature backstage, but he felt like his cheeks grew redder anyway. Still, he leaned back, sucked in, and slipped his hand down the inside of the fabric. 

“I just need you to get the buttons,” Kurt said.

“Got it.” Adam seemed to have something else itching to spring from his tongue, but he held it back, thankfully, and with a seriousness unbuttoned each shiny silver button, until the front was completely loose.

“I appreciate it.” 

Kurt started tugging the pants down, and Adam crouched down, grabbed the only loose bit of fabric, and helped pull from there. Soon, Kurt was standing there in nothing but his briefs, waiting on Claudia and Dana. For a long, tense moment, Kurt just looked at Adam, and Adam just smiled at him, with a bit of a twinkle in his eye.

Then the women were on him. New pants, new corset, long silver gloves, no jacket. Adam stayed, handing the women things every once and a while, when directed, and then his makeup artist Tandy appeared and was fixing up every part of him.

Once completely coiffed, Kurt headed back out to the stage. He spared a look back at Adam.

“Good luck out there,” he said.

Kurt paused, although he was being hurried forward. He reached back and touched Adam’s firm bicep with a few silvery fingers. 

“Meet me after the show?”

“Of course.” 

Adam’s words came almost as a whisper, but Kurt caught it. Then he put it all out of his mind. Now, it was showtime. Now he became the star the fans wanted to see. After, he would be flush with nervousness, vulnerable and searching. He’d let himself be touched by Adam; he’d let himself be kissed. They’d curl up together. They’d talk.

And talk, and talk. Adam hadn’t intended on ending up in the show, but it had been an opportunity, and if he was honest, Adam said, he had wanted to meet up with Kurt again for years. But Kurt had gotten so famous, seemingly overnight, that getting together for a cup of coffee fairly unfeasible. Kurt had wanted to get in touch with Adam as well, but after his second very messy breakup with Blaine, he hadn’t wanted to relive history. Trying to develop other relationships had just proved frustrating and useless. 

So while he was giving himself time to heal... Kurt’s had career started to take off. And that was that. No time for a significant other, even if he’d felt like being brave.

And in the end, Adam never left Kurt’s side after their talk. The procession of cars toting dancers, singers, techies, and manages continued along to the next stop in the show. And Adam was in Kurt’s bed that night, and the one after, and the one after, talking and caressing, and soon, helping him out of his clothes in a much more intimate setting.


End file.
